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SILICON VILLAGE

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Bharat BillPay, launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has on-boarded Banglore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) and Banglore Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWSSB) to empower over 1 crore consumers for secure and easy bill payment. Currently, 107 billers across India with over 2.4 million agent outlets have been enabled. Nearly thirty thousand agents have been on-boarded in Bengaluru that makes the ecosystem accessible to over 1 crore consumers. Bharat BillPay ecosystem has clocked 4.2 crore (42 million) transactions for September 2018Key billers in Karnataka besides BESCOM and BWSSB that are part of Bharat BillPay ecosystem are Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (GESCOM), Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (CESCOM) and Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM). Other major national billers are Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Jio, BSNL- Postpaid, Tata Sky, Dish TV, Sun Direct- DTH etc.A.R.Ramesh, Chief Project Officer, Bharat Bill Payment System, NPCI said, “BESCOM has partnered with Vijaya Bank for Bharat BillPay which has significantly increased accessibility of consumers to the biller on various channels. Also, BWSSB is one of the new billers that is on-boarded for the first time on an interoperable bill payment ecosystem through Canara Bank. With Bharat BillPay, we strive to make consumer’s life easier by providing a one stop destination for all their recurring bills”.Dr.R.C.Chetan, IRS, Chief Financial Officer and Director-Finance, BESCOM said, “With Bharat BillPay, BESCOM consumers have a convenient, safe and secure option to pay their bills as it saves time and cost of travelling to various bill collection centres. One can easily pay bills at their own convenience.”Tushar Girinath, Chairman, BWSSB said, “Paying Water Bills has always been a pain-point for consumers across India. Bengaluru consumers now have the power and control of paying their BWSSB water bills via his/her preferred app/website enabled on Bharat BillPay.”R A Sankara Narayanan, Managing Director and CEO, Vijaya Bank said, “We are happy to deepen our relationship with BESCOM and increase the accessibility of the consumers to the billers. Going forward Vijaya Bank aims to on board more billers in Bharat BillPay ecosystem. Consumers can be assured of a secure channel for bill payment by using any of the enabled channels under the Bharat BillPay ecosystem. It helps us to serve the consumer better by offering them ease of bill payment and future such collaborations”. Ashok Kumar Sahu, General Manager, Digital Banking Services, Canara Bank said, “We are happy to collaborate with BWSSB to empower bill payment of water across any of the Bharat BillPay enabled Channels. In future, to increase accessibility we would be offering Bharat BillPay to our consumers on our various platforms like Mobile Banking, Branches etc. along with on-boarding more billers that benefits the entire ecosystem”Consumers can pay their BESCOM and BWSSB bills in four simple steps as mentioned below:1. Select to pay your bills via net-banking, website, app or physical outlets of banks/non-banks by just seeing the Bharat BillPay logo.2. Select BESCOM/BWSSB from the list.3. Choose your desired payment mode like Card, Wallet, Net-Banking or Cash as enabled by your bank.4. Receive instant receipt and confirmation with Bharat BillPay logoThe approved categories of billers on Bharat BillPay are: Electricity, Direct-To-Home (DTH), Telecom (Mobile postpaid, Landline postpaid and Broadband), Water and Gas. Once bills are paid, the consumers receive instant confirmation in the form of SMS or/and email or Print receipt with the Bharat BillPay logo.About Bharat Bill Payment System: Bharat Bill Payment System is a Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) conceptualised ecosystem, managed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) which offers integrated, accessible and interoperable bill payment services to consumers across geographies with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions. It offers bill payment service to consumers through a network of agents/ retail shops/ bank-branches and digital channels like Internet banking, mobile apps, websites of banks and non-bank entities. As on date, 62 banks and 10 non-bank entities function as Bharat Bill PaymentOperating Units (BBPOUs) in the country. A BBPOU can be a bank or a non-bank institution which handles payment and aggregation of services related to bill payments under the scope of Bharat Bill Payment System (Bharat BillPay). Non-bank entities include aggregators, prepaid instrument issuers and consumer facing organisations. The pilot phase of Bharat Bill Payment System was launched by former RBI Deputy Governor, R. Gandhi on August 31, 2016.After successful completion of the pilot run, RBI accorded their approval and subsequently NPCI announced the launch of Bharat Bill Payment System on October 17, 2017.